The Soul of Shabbat

There is little doubt that a person who prepares himself to receive the Shabbat will benefit from the additional soul which inhabits every Jew on Shabbat; not only that, but anyone who sanctifies himself even a little on an ordinary weekday will find that he will enjoy heavenly assistance and reach a much higher level of sanctity than is possible merely by his own unassisted efforts. The Shabbat is particularly suited for the attainment of such higher spiritual levels. It is a fact that the person who has made some preparation for the Shabbat and as a result experiences a tremendous spiritual uplift thinks it is all due to his own efforts. Little does he realize that if it were not for the heavenly assistance received, his spiritual accomplishment would have been far more modest. The reward for the effort to observe the Shabbat in the proper spirit, then, is this additional spiritual power granted him by G‑d which the Talmud describes as a reward that is not self-evident!

We are taught by Rabbi Yochanan quoting Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai (Beitza 16), that G‑d gave us all the commandments publicly, except the commandment to observe the Shabbat. We derive this from the verse: "Between Me and the Children of Israel it is a sign forever." (Ex. 31:17) If indeed this is so, why would the Gentiles be liable to the death penalty for observing the Shabbat even if they did not know it was for Jews only? The answer is that the legislation to observe the Shabbat was certainly given publicly. It was the nature of the reward for this observance that remained a secret between G‑d and the Jewish people. Another answer is that the nature of the reward was also public knowledge; it was the possession of an additional soul on that day by the Shabbat-observing Jew that remained a secret between us and G‑d, for Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish stated that G‑d equipped the Jew with an additional soul on the Shabbat eve, which is taken from him after the conclusion of the Shabbat. All of this is based on the term "vayinafash" - "and he rested" (Ex. 31:17), meaning "woe to the soul that was lost because it rested." Thus far the Talmud.

I will now try and expand upon this statement and explain its meaning. We would have expected the statement to say, "Woe to the soul that will be lost because it rested." The meaning of the statement as quoted is therefore to be understood differently, namely that anyone who becomes aware of the "additional soul" entering him on the Shabbat Eve thereby realizes the loss he experienced at the end of the preceding Shabbat when that soul departed from him.

Let us return to the concept of the basic equality of the concepts of the Tabernacle and the Shabbat. It is logical therefore that all the forbidden work activities on the Shabbat are derived from activities performed in constructing the Tabernacle. This is also why in order to be culpable for transgressing these prohibitions they must have been performed intentionally. The Torah states that the construction of the Tabernacle involved thoughtful planning (Ex. 35:32). This means that everything that was made for use in the Tabernacle was designated to perform its function already when it was merely being processed, long before it became an integral part of the Tabernacle. The various artisans involved had to be familiar with the true significance of the parts they were fashioning, possibly even their mystical aspects.

The author proceeds to point out the significance in the wording of the opening Mishna of the tractate Shabbat (which describes different elements of the act of transferring property from one domain to another) as applicable to the comparison between work performed on the Shabbat and work performed for the construction of the Tabernacle. The work is described as: "two categories which are really four, internally, and two categories which are really four, externally." The expression "outside", is a reference to the negative prohibitions whose purpose is to keep the kelipot outside. The expression "p'nim" - "inner" - refers to the positive commandments and their function to bring additional sanctity into our personality. This is also the reason the sages refer to the two different "headlines" of the Shabbat -"remember" and "observe" - as having been said "in one word". They view the observance of the negative commandments of the Shabbat legislation, as no more than the other side of the coin called "Shabbat", the first side symbolizing the positive commandment: "Remember the Shabbat day to sanctify it." (Compare Ex. 20:8 and Deut. 5:12 respectively.)

Matters concerning the performance of positive commandments are two-fold, i.e. they involve body and soul respectively. Both body and soul consist of hidden as well as revealed aspects. Thus we see that there are a total of four categories. The revealed aspect of the soul is the Torah. Our sages phrased this by stating "The only reason the Shabbat days were created is to enable Torah study to be pursued on those days." The Zohar elaborates that upon its return to the Celestial Regions after the Shabbat, the additional soul is asked what new Torah insights it had gained during its stay on earth on the Shabbat. By coming up with such new insights the soul is considered as having created new heavens. This is why the Midrash we quoted earlier compared Isaiah (40:22) to the construction of the tent-cloths for the Tabernacle (Ex. 26:1). The message in both statements is that man is able to perform creative acts.

The next stage of comparison between the building of the Tabernacle and the creation of the universe as mentioned in the Midrash, and quoted by Rabbi Bachyah (page 661) was the comparison of G‑d's directive: "Let all the waters be gathered to one place" (Gen. 1:9), to the instruction of making a copper basin from the waters of which the priests would wash their hands. This stage is one that involves the body rather than the soul which is involved in Torah study. The aspect of physical Shabbat observance by the body which is closest to the observance by the soul, is the preparation for the Shabbat such as bathing the body. Scripture discusses the washing away by G‑d of the filth of the daughters of Zion, (Isaiah 4:4). This is presumably the source used by Rabbi Yehudah bar Ilai-i, who bathed himself and dressed in sheets every Shabbat Eve, and who, when dressed for the Shabbat, evoked the feeling in those who looked at him that they were seeing an angel of the Lord (Shabbat 25). The mystical dimension of the "sheets" no doubt was that he used something akin to the coverings of the Tabernacle.

There is an interesting Mishnah (Demai 4:1) that, if someone who is not trusted to have tithed his produce before selling it has sold some produce to a customer and the customer forgot to tithe it before the Shabbat, this customer may accept the assurance of the seller that it was tithed prior to the sale if such an assurance is given on the Shabbat. The reason given for the ruling is that the seller experiences the holiness of the Shabbat and is afraid to desecrate it.

The next item that Rabbi Bachyah listed in his comparison between the acts of creation when the universe came into being and the construction of the Tabernacle was the creation of the luminaries during the six days of Creation and the construction of the candlestick in the Tabernacle. The hidden parts of the soul are alluded to here. The soul of a person observing the Shabbat properly prepares himself spiritually before joining his wife in order to fulfill the commandment of "be fruitful and multiply" is elevated and influenced by the symbolism represented by the cherubs on the Holy Ark. I have explained elsewhere why the cherubs appeared like man and wife joining, and how the mystical element of the union between husband and wife is related to the "remember" aspect of the Shabbat legislation, the performance of the positive commandment of Shabbat observance.

When speaking about the negative commandments of the Shabbat, the "observing" aspect, we also find two, respectively four, categories. The visible aspect of the performance or non-performance of such negative commandments by the soul is "speech", the articulation of the thought. Certain kinds of speech are forbidden on the Shabbat. One is not supposed to discuss mundane matters relating to one's business, etc. Rabbenu Bachyah alluded to this when he referred to the creation of man, referred to as "a talking spirit". When speech is employed constructively it is called true "speech" [in Hebrew, "dibur"] and makes a positive impact in the Celestial Regions. When speech is not employed constructively it is called, "vain mouthings" ["hevel peh"] reminding us of "hevel hevalim" - "vanities of vanities" - of Solomon in Ecclesiastes. The Midrash mentioned the appointment of Aaron as High Priest during the construction of the Tabernacle as the activity which corresponded to the creation of man during the six days of Creation. Aaron knew when to speak, (as per Ex. 4:14) and he knew when to keep silent (as per Lev.10:3).

The Torah described the completion of the work of Creation with the words "Heaven and earth were completed [in Hebrew, 'vayechulu'] and the completion of the construction of the Tabernacle with the words "all the work of the Tabernacle was completed ['vatechal']. In our Torah reading we are dealing with work-prohibitions that apply to the body. One needs to guard one's body not to transgress any of these commandments.

Both of the expressions "and he shall bless" and "and he shall sanctify", which we find in connection with the Shabbat in Genesis and also with the blessing bestowed by Moses on the Tabernacle, relate to the hidden aspects of the soul, i.e. the formulation of thoughts and ideas before they have been articulated. The principal realm of sanctity is found in one's thought processes. This subject is discussed in a book Reishit Chochma, in the chapter called Sha'ar HaKedusha. From a strictly halachic point of view, only the articulation of certain thoughts is prohibited on the Shabbat, not the actual thought itself; a person who strives for sanctity will do so by imposing on himself additional restrictions ["Sanctify yourself in what is permitted" (Yevamot 20)], in this case by refraining from entertaining forbidden thoughts.

Whereas the abstention from work on the Shabbat is described as, "for on it He (G‑d) rested", at the conclusion of the story of the Creation, at the construction of the Tabernacle we find the sentence, "during six days work may be performed; this is deliberately phrased in the third person to underline the hidden aspect of the work performed by the body. In practical terms this means that in addition to a person being aware that with the arrival of the Shabbat he must cease forbidden activities, he should also consider all his unfinished work as having been completed prior to the onset of the Shabbat.

When we look at the Shabbat from this vantage point, we can understand the phrase, "Six days work shall be performed and on the seventh day shall be holy, a Shabbat of Shabbats." If the meaning of this verse had been that the seventh day should serve as Shabbat, the Torah should have written, "Six days work shall be performed and the seventh day shall be holy..." instead of "and on the seventh day, etc." As it is the Torah wishes to tell us that "on the seventh day everything, including unfinished tasks from the sixth day should be considered as completed."

The repetition in the phrase "Shabbat of Shabbats" together with the emphasis on the word "day" also suggests that even if work is being performed, the holy character of the Shabbat day itself does not cease.

[Translated and adapted by Eliyahu Munk.]